Try It Out Thursday : More Mixed Media

I thought I'd show you a different way of using lutradur in an altered book; this time, I'm using it to frame an existing image, a postcard I'd made using acrylic wax as a resist, and brusho sprays.   I added the image to the book in the right place, and stuck it down using double sided tape.  I decided to use the same method to stick the lutradur down, as you can see from the picture below of the tape before its backing paper was removed.  As you can see, I added it on three sides, but with hindsight, I should have added it at the top, too, and advise you to do so if you try this (and .  It is, of course, transparent; you won't be able to see it through the lutradur.

Then, I cut a sheet of Lutradur 70 to fit the page, and stuck it down using the double sided tape.  I decided that this would be a 'frame', so I then burned out the centre of the lutradur.  I knew that the glue would slow down the burning, so I could start from the centre, and work out the way; when I got to the point of the glue, I would be able to stop there.  Of course, that only works if you put glue on all four sides, right?  I ended up burning through the lutradur at the top left of the image.  To rectify it, I took a section of the burned out lutradur and covered up the gap... so you can see why I'm advising you do what I say, not exactly what I did!  Of course, the other option would be to treat the lutradur like mount board, and cut out a viewing rectangle slightly smaller than the size of the image, and stick it on in the same way.  That would give you nice clean lines around the edges.

Now for some colour on the 'frame', though it could have been left white.  I did consider silver, but didn't think the image looked particularly wintry, so  I started by painting the lutradur with light gold acrylic paint. 
When that dryed, I rubbed some teal blue Markal stick over it in some places.  I then decided to add some traces of dark brown, just to give a stronger contrast between the image and the edges; this time, though, I added the Markal stick to a piece of scrap lutradur and dabbed it on.  Don't scrub at the lutradur; if you do, you are likely to make the surface fuzzy.  Of course, if that's what you're aiming for, be my guest!

So, the final touch was to run a black watercolour crayon round the edges of the page, just to help give a little definition to it.  And there we are, another completed page in my altered book!

Try It Out Tuesday : Mixed Media (continued)

Last time, I'd just covered a leaf with lutradur in an altered book.  Sandy wondered how I was going to colour it 'after the fact', as she put it...well, it's surprisingly easy.  Pretty much, the lutradur coloured itself.  If you remember, we stuck it on with acrylic adhesive.  So, when I applied the heat gun to distress the lutradur, some of it started to burn, creating lovely colours that looked perfect with the leaf.  You do need to be careful with the heat gun when doing this; get it too close to the page and you may find that the paint under the lutradur, and the page itself, will buckle and swell a bit.  It's an interesting look, and any swelling immediately disappears as it cools, but better not to produce it in the first place!

So... I started at the edges of the page, creating a very distressed look, and then worked over the rest of the page.

I then singed the lutradur a bit more, and added some colour round the edges using a watercolour crayon, before rubbing a glitter Markal stick across the page, giving it some texture as well as a slightly frosted look.

This is the final piece; the frosted effect doesn't photograph all that well, but I hope you get the idea.  Lutradur really doesn't have to be coloured before you use it; you can colour it at any stage of the process.  I hope you'll give it a try!